Summertime as a football fan is usually one of mixed emotions as they reminisce on the season that has just gone and look forward to the season ahead - in addition to having withdrawal symptoms from hearing 'Johnson had a dream' and vigorously refreshing twitter feeds ever Saturday afternoon.

Most Cheltenham fans will agree that last season was one of disappointment, with many thinking that our beloved 'champions' would bode us well and finish in a respectful league position, when in reality a Cheltenham squad, revitalised in the January transfer window, scraped a lowly position of 21st.

As the season ended, the general consensus among fans was that Gary Johnson needed to wave goodbye to some of his players and overhaul the playing staff.

This plea was answered as following the departure of top scorer Billy Waters, the Robins had lost 13 players of the previous squad, thus, the building of a stronger, more experienced squad could begin.

The signings of Kevin Dawson, Jamie Grimes and Nigel Atangana have been a revelation in the view of some fans.

Widely popular amongst the fan bases of their previous clubs, hotly described as 'leaders' and eager to prove themselves at their new club, these signings seem to be the 'gems' that Gary is well known for finding.

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Having seen Dawson play a fair amount of times, I can safely say we have another player who is too good for League Two (along with Carl Winchester and Will Boyle).

Grimes was captain at Dover and their fans were sad he was leaving, so he seems a good non-league gem. Nigel is a character, always showing off his hard work on social media he looks eager to prove himself after a difficult time at Leyton Orient. A French defensive midfielder from the lower leagues in France, where have I seen that before?

Cheltenham Town's new signing Nigel Atangana

However, after these arrivals, the transfer window seems to have gone very quiet, with very little talk of signings and no new player in four weeks, which raises the question of whether Gary is missing out on his top targets.

I am not saying this is the case, it just seems odd how we can sign three players in a week and then go four weeks without a signing, and with pre-season starting on Wednesday, I would have liked to have seen the squad already together so that they can bond together over pre season and work out which formation works best for the players we have got, rather than shoe-horn them into a formation- just like we did in the National League.

In my opinion, Cheltenham needed to sign a goalkeeper that is experienced in League Two and having lost out on cult hero Scott Brown, Gary has brought in former loan star Jon Flatt.

While Flatt did a good job in the National League, last season must have proven to Gary that the majority of the squad that won the league were not ready/capable of making the step up.

Also, we have a very inexperienced back line with Will Boyle, Daniel O'Shaughnessy, and Jamie Grimes all having played two seasons or less at this level. They need an experienced head back there on the pitch to help them through, not a young, inexperienced goalkeeper.

The main area that needs strengthening now is our strike force. Already we have two strikers on the books, Dan Holman and Danny Wright, but it is felt by many, including myself that we need to add to this.

While Wright works hard, is strong in the air and can score the odd goal, it is clear to see that he is aging (shown by Harry Pell's love of his bald patch) and may struggle against the league tougher, faster and fitter defenders.

As for Holman, he proved that he can score a goal or two in the National League, scoring 16 goals in four months for us, but I feel he has not cut the mustard in League Two.

Dan Holman

This is possibly due to his unfortunate injury rate, but Cheltenham cannot afford to risk him getting injured for two months and for the goals to dry up. As a well as this we have also lost our top scorer- currently we look desperately short of goals.

It is clear to see that Gary needs to sign at least one proven League Two striker, someone like James Collins from Crawley, a player who is guaranteed to get you 15/20 goals a season in League Two. On top of this, a young loan striker (minimum twenty years old Gary) would be a breath of fresh air, and it would be nice to see a loan player develop his career at Cheltenham Town, which we have not seen for a while.

One final area that needs to developing is the wide areas. It is clear to see that for whatever reason, Gary Johnson does not like to use proper wingers, with Pell, Winchester, Waters, and even Wright used on the wing last year.

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Admittedly, I quite like the 3-5-2 system as over the years we have had a lot of full backs who were better at attacking than defending (Danny Andrew, Craig Braham-Barrett). This system allows the full back to get forward a lot more, and I felt that Jack Barthram and Liam Davis suited this system well.

However, a recurring problem last year was that we had no 'plan B.' Once teams had worked out our system, we resorted to lumping it forward rather than utilising the width of the pitch.

For this reason, I believe we need to sign two full backs AND two wingers (one for each side) so that if we are struggling in a 3-5-2 formation, we can switch to a 4-4-2 and use 'round pegs in round holes.'

There has been a lot of talk of Gary only wanting a squad of 20 players, which to be honest is quite frightful. The rules for the loan system are different now, so if a couple of players get injuries or suspensions, Gary can't just ring up Lee and ask for a favour anymore, we have to do full Mark Yates and 'go with what we have got' which may mean we will struggle some games.

Don't get me wrong, I trust Gary's judgement to an extent, and I am looking forward to seeing the likes of Adam Page, Rhys Lovett, Matt Bower and Josh Thomas get a chance, but I would still like to see a squad of around 23 players just to make sure we will always have enough senior players as well as youth.

Josh Thomas will turn professional with Cheltenham Town next season

The season ahead has the potential to be a great one; a good transfer window along with our brand new scoreboard and a pitch that does not resemble the scenes at Glastonbury Festival, it already has the foundations to be a step forward from last year. Fans must already be looking forward to meeting Forest Green and Grimsby again.

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Cheltenham may even finish in the top half, but the pressure is on this year, we haven't got a title win to use as an excuse, we have to take the league seriously and not say 'its okay if we lose this one' if we want to stand any chance.

Every point counts as Hartlepool found out last year. There's going to be a lot of twist and turns, up and downs and a lot of long road trips, but that's why we love it so much. August 5 cannot come fast enough.